An Ocean Between Us: The A to Zs of Popular British and American Names

Naming traditions carry a great deal of weight. As any parent, pet owner, or guitar player will readily admit, finding the perfect moniker takes research, nuance, and a touch of personality. Choose poorly, and you’ve doomed that poor dear to a lifetime of ridicule and mispronunciation, but with the right name—you may well be predicting the future. Grace Kelly is the perfect name for a 20th century starlet; Honus Wagner was destined to win eight batting titles just like Beyoncé was certain to be destiny’s favorite child. Of course Elon Musk is a genius—it’s all right there.

As part of our Power BI Best Report contest from earlier this year, SQL Developer and BI professional Leonard Murphy unpacked the naming histories of the United Kingdom vs. the United States in his excellent What’s in a Name? Power BI dashboard. Here are 26 quick highlights:

A. Americans really like Adele. Since 2002, the name has spiked upwards of 626% state-side while dropping to less than 100 annual registrations in England and Wales.

B. While Benedict Cumberbatch might sound like the most British name of all time, Murphy’s research suggests that honor goes to Bertie, scoring a perfect 100%.

C. In 1996, Charlotte scored 86.14% on the British baby name scale, but in the past 20 years has almost completely inverted to 84.7% American.

D. Dakota has gone from being an almost exclusively male name to 56.3% female.

E. In 2014, Elsa increased 443.6% across both countries.

F. The early 90s saw a handful of Freddies running around American preschools. Today, Freddie is almost exclusively British.

G. Gemma has seen the most drastic swing in international preference, nearly inverting from 5.19% American usage to a massive 96.94% majority over 20 years.

H. Harriet has been far more popular in the UK than in the Americas, at 93.5% British, but shortened to Hattie, that percentage plummets to 24.6%.

I. Despite a recent American surge, Imogen still ranks eighth on the “Most British Names” list at 95.3%.

J. Be careful with Jamie—in the U.S. the name is almost exclusively female. The opposite is true in the UK.

K. Since 1990, Kyle has seen a significant fall from grace, dropping nearly 90% in the U.S. from 22,696 registrations to 2,370.

L. Liam has had quite the opposite experience. Starting at just 274 U.S. registrations in 1990, its become one of America’s most fashionable names, spiking at 18,342 registrations in 2014.